STRUGGLE FOR PEACE THE 25 YEAR JOURNEY OF THE ABSDF

Book coordinaon: Nerea BilbatuaPhotographs Kannan Arunasalam

Layout by Boonruang Song-ngamPublished by the Center for Peace and Conict Studies (CPCS), 2014Funding support: Foreign Aairs Department (Human Security Division), Government of SwitzerlandISBN: 978 9 996 38171 3

1STRUGGLE FOR PEACE The 25 year journey of The aBSDf

2ABSDF is the only student-based organisation; we are getting old we are more like teachers now. Students represent everybody, thats why we formed a students army, the only students army in Burmese history. But we took the arms because of the government suppression of our movements. This should not be repeated in the future.

At that time we had no experience with armed revolution, we only knew what we read from books. We left the country and joined the armed struggle, but before I decided to leave and join the revolution I did not think too much about what would it mean, how hard would it be, what it would mean for my family, because I am the only son. I have three sisters. My father was a teacher. My family had many expectations for me, but after seeing the incidents and the bloodshed during the uprising in 1988 I could not think about my family and left. After 20 years I communicated with my father. He was very sad but he never criticized me. (Ko Thura)

3CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 7

CHAPTER 1We havent symbolised a battleeld as our future .......................13

CHAPTER 2That was the rst time we heard about democracy ....................31

CHAPTER 3Jail or Jungle ...................................................................49

CHAPTER 4The ABSDF has been a lifetime experience .............................69

CHAPTER 5I would like to say the government that starting a war is easy, but rebuilding the country, the villages that have been destroyed, is not .............................................................................. 127

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................... 153

CHRONOLOGY ................................................................. 155

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7INTRODUCTION

After 25 years of armed struggle the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) has embarked in a process of transformation. Change, adaptation, flexibility are all words that the ABSDF men and women know very well; they have shaped their existence. ABSDF members have learnt to live in places foreign to them (the jungles in the border areas, the refugee camps); they have entered into alliances with different ethnic armed groups and, by doing this, questioned their own understanding of the ethnic divisions within their country. They have become a bridge between the Burman majority and the ethnic groups. They have been challenged and they have overcome these challenges.

Their journey to peace provides a time for reflection, a moment to look back at the past and the way it impacts the present. It also raises questions about the future. The ABSDF members left their homes and families 25 years ago. Soon they will perhaps return back to the place where they belong. But what does it mean returning home with dignity?

We at CPCS understand that capturing the stories of the ABSDF men and women, providing them with a space to reflect and to share their personal stories of resistance and struggle, as well as their hopes for the future, can contribute to this transformative moment. We also believe that by doing this we can help to build an inclusive culture of remembering the past in Myanmar.

In every conflict multiple truths and narratives exist but there is a danger of losing some voices, especially those who hold less power. This is the reason why we framed this intervention as a peacebuilding strategy and we called it a Peace History Project. This project provides a space where the ABSDF members can tell their truths and their narratives of the last 25 years.

8The ABSDF Central Leading Committee provided CPCS with a list of people they would like to be interviewed. It was a very diverse list in terms of age, experiences and roles within the ABSDF but not in terms of gender. It was limited to current ABSDF members, although the voices of former members have been included to some extent through poetry. Interviews were conducted over the course of six months from February to August 2013.

The project aimed to capture voices as well as images. Since the beginning we were lucky to have the photographer, Kannan Arunasalam, on board. His pictures bring the faces of ABSDF members, their families and their daily life. They also show a country in a moment of change.

Memories are subjective, contradictory and sometimes opposing but they also reflect commonalities and joint perceptions. They provide a space where the collective and the individual intersect and often blend together.

Through the course of this project the ABSDF and CPCS have travelled together. This has been a physical journey across different locations and a journey across different times and moments. It has also been an emotional journey, for those who were telling their stories, and for those listening to them. We have shared laughter and good humour, but also tears, pain and sorrow. This has been a journey of trust.

We at CPCS have felt extremely privileged.

Interviewees have been exceptionally generous. Their memories have taken us back to their childhood, their hopes and dreams at that time, and the hopes of their families. We have also travelled to 1988 Burma and felt the energy, disappointment, anger and fear of that time. We have crossed mountains together whilst they recounted their journey to the jungle, the camps, and the frontline. Through their eyes we have understood the beauty of the struggle,

9as well as its ugliness and destruction. We have seen the ABSDF growing and maturing, as individuals as well as collectively as an armed group. We have witnessed their daily life in exile and their transition to peace with the signing of two ceasefire agreements with the Myanmar government.

We hope the reader of this book will also embark on a journey. A journey through the lives of these men and women, through their choices, decisions, achievements, failures and contradictions. A journey through a part of Myanmar History. A journey of hope.

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CHAPTER 1We havent symbolised a battleeld as our future

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One think I always remember about my childhood is that we used to play battles and I always was on the rebels side. (Thein Lwin)

Every day we had to walk to the school for almost two hours. We woke up at 4am to prepare our food. We came back home in the afternoon after another two hours walk. On the way to school, the roads were very bad; during the rainy season we could not ride our bicycles and sometimes we had to use bullock carts. We had to cross a small stream, but if it had rained a lot we could not cross it. There was no protection against the rain because the wind was always very strong. Our parents would worry if we were late. They would come to the road looking for us. But I was very eager to study. We tried very hard to get an education. (Myint Oo)

My teacher, whose name was Daw San Ye, was an inspiration. She was Pa O ethnic. She told us that there was a gap between the History we learned from the textbook at the school and the real history. She recommended reading other books, such as those written by the leader of the Burmese communist party, or about the Thirty Comrades and General Aung San, and watching movies. She was very young but very knowledgeable. I studied with her for four years until she resigned because her husband died in an incident with the army; she was devastated and quit her job. Before 1988 I was not politically engaged beyond going to lectures and reading books. I studied electronic engineering at GTN in Bago division for three years. I talked to senior students who had contacts in foreign countries and learnt about the education system. They were saying that even after graduating from GTN the education we had received was useless. In a three-year programme, minor subjects such as Burmese or political sciences occupied the first two years, even if our focus was electrical engineering. Our titles and educations were useless. Everything depended on connections rather than capacity. One of the graduates had a scholarship and gained a PHD in New

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Zealand but he never got promoted because he was not a member of the BSPP party; he was actually transferred to another professional training school where students learnt to build stuff out of bamboo. Electrical engineering was a new subject at that time. Our teachers were very young, they would hang out with the students, they were very easy going, they had long hair. (Ko Kyaw Ko)

Both my parents were teachers. My mother comes from a rebel family. My father never talked about politics at all, but I remember that when I graduated from 8th grade in 1982 he told me: I know one day you will join a resistance group. I will tell you the dos and donts; there are always good and bad people, even in the resistance groups, so you always have to be careful. Afterwards I thought it was good advice. I think he told me this because of my personality. I was always standing up for the right thing; even at the school I would fight alone against four or five students. I always stood by what I thought was correct. I always was different from other people my age. In the very early years, in 1982-1983, my friends were all Karen. We made a blood oath: we would join the resistance groups after finishing high school to fight for the rights of the Karen people. All of us got the Che Guevara image tattooed as well. (Saw Silas)

My village was very close to the KNU operated area, and the presence of KNU rebels was constant. During my childhood we were always afraid of the KNU attacks. They came often and attacked my town. I could hear the shelling on the other side of the river. One time we, the young people in the town, were asked to stand guard against KNU attacks. We only had bamboo sticks. (Moe Kyaw Oo)

I was planning to study engineering, although my parents wanted me to be a doctor because that was perhaps most respected profession in Burma then; they were quite ambitious. I had been a well-known student because I was a smart boy. Every year there was a selection of the most outstanding students. I was always the top student of my town. I was a student celebrity. (Kyaw Thura)

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I studied at high school until 10th Grade. I was an outstanding student. Every year I got an award. I was always among the top three students in my class. If the 1988 uprising had not happened, I would have liked to study History. Before 1988 I knew that the political system was not good for the Burmese people and that things had to change. I saw that there were not enough teaching materials at the school, not enough medicines at the hospital, you had to have money to pay for the medicines yourself if you got sick. That was the system. There was no protection for the people. I believed that democracy would help. That was already on my mind. My mum was particularly interested in politics. My brothers in law were also involved. They were doctors, educated guys. (Thein Lwin)

My parents were not politically active, but sometimes my father would make political jokes. Sometimes he liked to talk about what was happening in the country. He said: dont do to the others what you would not want the others to do to you. I understood his words later, when I learnt about human rights and democracy. He explained these things in very simple words. We had a good childhood. (Win Tin Han)

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Knives,

Ploughs,

Oxen,

Paddy, and

Farms.

All of these are our lives.

- Kyauk Khae

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I studied until 7th Grade. When I was 14 I left school and started working at the family farm. I saw the unfair treatment towards the farmers; for example we were forced to sell our crops to the government for a lower rate than the market price; we could not sell them to whomever we wanted. If a bag of rice cost 15 Kyat in the market, the government would only give us 5. We suffered many forms of unfair treatment. (Saw Maung Oo)

My parents worked trading rice. They were not involved in politics. I have seven brothers. I am the eldest. I studied until 10th Grade. Because I was working helping my parents making a way for my younger brothers to go to school, I attended the evening classes. History was my favourite subject. You can learn so many things from the past and take the lessons for the future. But the textbook was limited to Burmese history. I read a lot from other books. Since I was little I was particularly interested in the World Wars. (Khin Kyaw)

My political activism started when I was working in the mining project. I saw the suffering of my fellow workers and their oppression. I felt very sorry for them, but I could not do anything. I was in charge of the explosive department and I was supervising 20 workers, only one of them was a man, the rest were women, some of them as old as my own mother, or as my own sisters. They were working in a very dangerous situation; they had to carry the explosives to the top of the mountain on their heads. They had to crush the big stones to make them smaller. It was a very hard job. This was an open mine and there were many cases of tuberculosis. I got tuberculosis myself. WHO and other UN agencies were providing enough medicines to treat it, but because of corruption there was a shortage of medicines and the treatment was not for free. When I got sick I started working overtime to pay for the medicines. But the ordinary workers had no chance to make extra money and could not afford the medication. They were just waiting for death to come. After four years in the mine I returned to my township. So, when the 1988 uprising started I felt I had the opportunity to do something to end all the suffering I had witnessed. Nobody asked me to join, but it was important for me. (Ko Pouk)

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I studied at the local primary school, and when I successfully finished 8th grade in 1982 I attended the BSPPs Academy for Development of National Group, which trained young people from the ethnic regions. I graduated in 1986. One of the purposes of these Institutes was to send people to the remote ethnic areas to help with development. I wanted to contribute to this and to teach small children in the communities. So, I was sent to a village in Karen State where I started working as a primary school teacher. Soon after I was promoted as head master and transferred to another village in another remote area. At that time I was both a teacher and a student. I was in the second year of my studies of Geography at the Mawlamyine University by correspondence. This was the time when I saw the human rights abuses on the local people from the Burmese army. At that time I had to travel with the military column because the area was considered conflict affected. I saw how the people in those areas were treated by the military. For example, in the rainy season the military asked the local people to give them the roof of their own houses so that they would be protected from the rain. I also saw how the army would use people the way they wanted. How drunken officials would open fire on the people just for fun. I was born in a conflict-affected area, what we call a black area. I experienced conflict since I was very young. I saw how people around me were taken away as porters. Sometimes when fights broke around we had to hide. But at that time I believed that the Burmese army was protecting us from the KNU attacks. I thought the Burmese army was just doing their job and defending the country. But when I moved to work as a teacher I saw how brutally local people were treated. I felt very sorry for them. This was something that I did not expect to see. (Fighter Aung)

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Life was good in the 50s, when I was born. After the 1962 military coup we faced many economic hardships. Farmers did not have the right to grow whichever crops they wanted but those indicated by the government; even if they wanted to grow beans the government would force them to grow sunflowers. The prices of the products were going down. At the same time repressive laws were imposed on the farmers. My mother was an educated person. After I finished high school she sent me to study at the Rangoon University. Before the academic year started the student protests over U Thans death began at the end of 1974. I joined them. I was inspired by the students, but also by my older uncles who also participated. I was 16 years old when I was detained in 1975. I started writing in prison. I wrote about my life there, mostly at night. With other prisoners we started writing a magazine. We wrote in the paper that our families had used to wrap whatever they brought us when they visited. We hid it from the guards but we could not smuggle it out of the prison. I learnt a lot about poetry and writing whilst in jail, mostly from my fellow prisoners, many of them poets and senior students. Before going to prison I didnt know I was going to be a poet. I was released on January 1979. I was around 20 years old. After I was released I returned to my hometown and focused on writing my poetry. I also set up a small bookshop. I could not return back to school due to my political involvement. They saw political activists as trouble makers. (Ko Lwan Ni)

When I was in 8th Grade I was sent to prison for three years for distributing anti-government pamphlets. I served one and half years, between 1974 and 1976. After finishing high school I did not go to university. At that time I wanted to be someone who had power, so I thought that I would join the army academy, but later on I became aware of the injustices under the dictatorship and decided that I would rather be a rebel. I would have actually joined the revolution straight after being released from prison, but my mother told me: please dont do it until I die, so I listened to her. (Ko Min Min)

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Since I was young I loved reading all kinds of books. When I was at the university I admired Ho Chi Minh and how the Vietnamese won the war against the USA. I also admired Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. They all had a strong influence on me. But in our country many young people didnt understand them. To them Che Guevara is only a face on a t-shirt. The workers strike in June 1974 marked the beginning of my political life. At that time I was a final year student of Psychology at the Rangoon University. I was living at a boarding house at the university campus. My room number was 100. Aung Kway, a student leader during the colonial time who was the first student killed on the streets by the British government in 1920 (we still commemorate this day as a National Day) also lived in the room 100, the same room where I was living. This coincidence encouraged me spiritually. In his time the fight was against the colony. In my time, the fight was for democracy. In December 1974 the former UN Secretary General U Thant passed away. His body was taken back to Burma. The students wanted to honour him as a National Hero. He was the first Burmese in a world leader position. He played a key role during the USA/Cuba missile crisis. He was one of the fathers of peace. He came from a well-respected family. But General Ne Win didnt like him. He was jealous of him. When U Thans body arrived to Rangoon we took his coffin and brought it to the Rangoon University and buried it on the grounds of the Rangoon University Students Union. For this action I was detained and sentenced to seven years in prison. I was released in 1979. I was detained again in 1982 and accused of being an insurgent. That time I served a two-year term and was released again in 1984. I had to finish my degree by correspondence and I graduated whilst in prison. I was in prison when my friend Ko Tin Maung O was hanged. He was the first person to be given a death sentence after Burmas Independence. I was with him on death row before he was executed. He said to us you must continue the fight. Goodbye. (Maung Maung Taik)

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I took part on the students demonstrations when the former UN Secretary General U Thant passed away in 1974. My sister and me were involved in fundraising, organising security etc. My sister was put in jail and I would see Maung Maung Taik when I visited her in prison. I graduated in 1977 and stayed in Rangoon. I became a businesses man. I was running a car body workshop as well as an ice-making factory. My first daughter was already born in 1974. The last one was born in 1987. (U Sue Htut)

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I remember during the time of U Thant, I was in the 5th Grade; I was nine or ten years old. I went to school and suddenly they announced that the school was closed. Years later when I came to the Rangoon University all these memories came back to me. We went to visit the places where the uprising in the 70s had happened. Everyone was sharing the information they had. We saw the pictures of the people marching all these things got combined. (Sonny Mahinder)

Something I really liked from the university was that it was a meeting place for students from all over the country. Just by being there I was able to learn about the situation in the whole country. I had friends from many different places. Whilst studying we had to do field work during the summer break at different factories, and that gave me the opportunity to learn how factories were administered by managers coming from the army or civilians. Because I had friends affiliated with different political organisations, I could study and analyse those organisations. (Myo Win)

In our classroom we were organised the following way: first rows for Rangoon people, then Kayah people and then Chin people. So I met quite a lot of Chin students at that time. That was the first time I had Chin friends. We were introduced to Political Science. On the first year we learnt about the Burmese way to socialism. On the second year we learnt about the Constitution of the Socialist Party. We laughed and made jokes because we saw the reality and how different it was. But some kids were good students. They just wanted to be there and learn whatever they were told. They just wanted to get good grades. But we thought differently. We thought hey whats going on? This is the Constitution, this is the People, and this is what the authorities are doing. I had lots of questions. We would talk about what was happening on our hometowns. I grew up in Karenni state, I knew so many things, I had seen the army helicopters, I had heard about the military operations Sometimes we could hear the KNPP gunfire. But I did not blame them. I though they should fight because of the harassment and bad treatment local people received from the army. I had seen these things, and we

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shared our experiences with other friends. But when I talked about these things to my friends in Rangoon they did not believe it. They said these were rumours. But I told them these are no rumours. I have seen these things with my own eyes. (Sonny Mahinder)

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A Tree

I dig my land

With my own hands and feet.

I plough it with my own coulters.

I plant with my own seeds.

Actually, I am a tree for the world.

Yet I cant give shade

Upon my own country and my own land.

Set Min NayVol. 1. No. 9. Nov-Dec 2001.

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CHAPTER 2That was the rst time we heard about democracy

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The first student strike happened in 1988, on March 13. On that day, one student, Phone Maw, was killed in Rangoon. Afterwards, the strikes spread across the country. The government closed all the schools and universities; they thought that by, doing this, the students would be quiet. But we were not. Country students took a leading role in the uprising alongside workers and peasants. (Ko Than Khe)

On March 13, 1988, the uprising began. Many students were wounded during the riots and I accompanied some of them to the hospital. When we returned the army blocked the roads, which together with the Royal Police had the students surrounded at the university campus. The Royal Police tried to disperse the students by using water cannons as well as tear gas. We could resist the water cannons but the tear gas made us run and hide. After the tear gas subdued I went back to the campus. The army had already seized part of it. This is when I found out that Phone Maw had been killed. In order to control the news the authorities arrested everybody at the hospital, both the students and lecturers. When night came we built a memorial monument to Phone Maw using his vest stained with blood, and his slippers and some bullet shells. We stayed awake all night. The next morning we marched inside the compound, as we were not allowed to leave. We listened to the radio stations. Both the State-controlled station and the BBC wrongly stated that Phone Maw was killed by stabbing and not by shooting. This news really made us, the students, furious. We started another demonstration in the compound. At that time our only demand was to reveal the truth about Phone Maws death. We wrote a letter saying that Phone Maw had in fact been shot dead and asked one of the university administrators to sign it. He signed because of our pressure. We made many copies of the letter and were able to distribute it at different universities as the police had reopened some roads. As a result, students from other universities came and joined us for Phone Maws funeral. I was one of the students collecting donations for the funeral as part of the Funeral Committee. Whilst we were preparing for the funeral the army blocked the roads again with army trucks and surrounded the compound. At that time there were not many students at the compound. There

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was no way out for us. After discussing we decided to remain as a group until we would be arrested. We thought that if we would run separately we would probably never see each other again. So, we decided to stick together. Luckily someone helped us to leave the compound through back roads and shortcuts. This is how we managed to escape from the surrounded compound. Soon after that the university was raided and some students were arrested. The army was looking for specific students and showing pictures of them. I was one of them. The police were showing my picture around and looking for me. A friend came and told me to run. So I decided to go back to my hometown. On March 16 there was a big demonstration in Rangoon, but I could not participate because although I was still in the city I was trying to escape. I arrived at my native town three days later, on March 19. Soon after that I received a letter saying that I had been dismissed from the university. The university reopened in June. I wanted to go and collect my belongings but was not allowed. I have never been back to Rangoon again. (Myo Win)

I got involved in the students protests after Phone Maws killing. During the protest I had distributed leaflets and other information. On March 16 I took part in the Red Bridge protests during which police brutally cracked down on students. Nearly 100 students were killed or drowned that day. After the protests the university was closed and all of us who were from outside Rangoon were forced to return to our hometowns. When I returned home, I started mobilising people to prepare for the 8.8.88 uprising. (Ma Sue Pwint)

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Our life was very simple. I studied in my village until 8th grade in 1987. I was 15 years old. The protests began in 1988. We joined the strike camp because we knew about the everyday situation Burmese people were facing. Most of us at the strike camp were students. I was the only member in my family who joined the protests. My grandfather didnt like it. My family did not want to see me being hurt; it is a normal feeling. (Chit Win)

In 1988 I joined the students uprising. We knew about the political situation in Burma and about the hardships of the people in the country. We thought the system could not bring benefits to the people and that we needed to change the political system. Most of the people in Burma were poor. We had to change the system. We had learnt about democracy whilst in university. We knew we were not living in a democratic country and we thought that we needed a real democracy in Burma. The understanding of this situation encouraged me to get involved in the students uprising. I was a member of one of the students unions. I was not a leader but just an ordinary member doing office work for the union organising committee. (Win Tin Han)

I got a job at the Industry Ministry and got married and had two daughters. And then 1988 happened and I got involved in the activities. Even if I was a government servant I advocated among the people around me, other civil servants, to participate in the demonstrations. Everybody, students, workers, farmers, were suffering; in order to get a better future we had to fight for it. I did not get involved in the protests leadership, but I helped with organising the civil servants. At the beginning I thought the uprising would bring changes, but later on I saw how the army created chaos, so that they could have an excuse to repress the protesters. Burma was not like, for example, the Philippines People Power movement where the army had joined the people. (Ko Min Min)

I did not get involved in the 1988 uprising. At that time I was busy being a rickshaw driver. But I heard lots of things from different people and later on I thought I should also do something to change the system. I used to help my father and I saw how when I was younger my parents could support the family

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with a small amount of money. But as I grew older I saw how even if they were making more money our situation was still the same, it was not improving. I did not join the demonstrations but I went to look at them, listen to the speeches I hung around with my friends and we discussed how the country was changing and how we wanted to take part in it. At that time I did not think it would take too long to achieve our goals. It had taken General Aung San six years to overthrow the colonizers and the Japanese, so I thought maybe we could do it in less than that. (Kyaw Kyaw)

Before 1988, I always thought that after graduation I would join the government work force and I would lead a simple life. Before the 1988 uprising I always tried to avoid politics because my family was poor and living in a remote area. They had high hopes for me, even the entire village had high hopes for me, and I wanted to keep their hopes alive. Going to university at that time was a dream. So, I avoided politics. I even did not dare to buy political books! I was being dragged by two opposing forces: my parents (and those in my village) hopes and expectations, and my desire to join the struggle. In March 1988 when Phone Maw was killed, the students protested and the university closed I went back to my village and tried to stay away from politics, although I was aware of the demonstrations happening all over the country. On August 20 1988 I decided to get involved in politics. Even though the uprising started in 8 August nothing was happening in my region. So I started organising in the nearby villages. (Ma Hnoung)

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On March 16 the students were rising up. We had been waiting for a long time. I talked to the university students. We discussed what to do when the university reopened. We contacted friends all over Burma. The student leaders in Rangoon decided to set 8.8.88 as the date for the uprising. We were happy and started organising in Loikaw. During that time I was asked by the local authorities to visit them with my father. I did not know what had I done wrong. I was worried. And I got a warning from them in front of my father; the authorities said: if he continues doing this he will be punished. This made me even angrier! But we had to continue. On 8.8.88 we did not do anything. We just distributed some pamphlets in the city. The next day in the evening some guys went out and started shouting some slogans but I was not in that crowd. We started our strike on August 22, a bit later than in other cities, but we had to wait because ours was a black area, so we had to make sure everything was OK. On the 22 we marched, gave speeches. At the beginning we were mostly students but later on more people joined, and supported us. People were angry after the kyat devaluation in 1987. (Sonny Mahinder)

The university was closed and the authorities sent us back to our homes. Soon after I arrived we got information that the 8. 8. 88 uprising was being organised. On August 8 I was not in my village. I was farming when my friend told me that the demonstrations had started. I told my father I wanted to return to the village to participate in the demonstrations. He did not have any problem with that. So with other students we opened a strike camp at the monastery compound. The monks were very supportive. At the beginning we did not know how to organise ourselves so we went to see one of our teachers who had experience. For example, we knew about the peacock, but which colour? So our teacher drew the peacock for us. We marched from village to village shouting the same slogans that other students were shouting in the cities. At the beginning we were mostly students but afterwards many people joined us (farmers, workers, monks, even members of the police came to join us). Other people would line the streets clapping as

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we marched and gave us donations to buy food. It was a very exciting time, we were very happy; we did not care if it was raining, if the roads were slippery, we marched. (Myint Oo)

On August 8 nothing happened in my town. The plan that day was to bring the high school students out. I remember waiting outside the high school but for some reason the school authorities had found out about the plan, so they shut down the school at 9am. That meant that the students inside could not get out. So nothing happened, even if many people took to the streets that day. (Kyaw Thura)

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On the afternoon of August 8, 1988 demonstrators took the streets of my hometown. I did not think that was going to happen because Mudon is a business-oriented city; it is the heart of the black market. I spent the night at the strike camp. When I went back home the next morning my father was very mad at me. My family locked me in my home so that I could not go out. My grandmother was worried about me, so she came home to help my mother watch me. My mother sat by the front door and my grandmother by the back door so I could not leave the house. Ten days later they started to relax and even my younger sisters joined the demonstrations. I was not part of any strike committee at the camp but helped organise security etc. General Aung, and the way he had fought against colonialism, was a big influence to me; even during the demonstrations there was military training at the camps; our thinking was that we would make our demands peacefully and that we would only take up arms if the peaceful means did not achieve anything. (Ko Kyaw Ko)

The 1988 demonstrations started in my township on August 9 rather than on August 8. Moe Thee Zun, the student leader, wrote me a letter. We were from the same township. On August 9 we went to the school very early in the morning. At the beginning only 20 or so students came and we marched to another high school and more students joined and so on. By 8.30am the group had grown and it had became a very big protest. I was at the front of the demonstration. We knew the army was positioned at a junction waiting for us, and I tried to avoid meeting them, but the crowd wanted to meet the army. When we arrived we saw a light tank in front of us. They opened fire and three people were killed on the spot. The demonstration became chaotic. We retreated back and some of the demonstrators took over the local police station. The protesters could no longer be controlled. On August 26, my colleagues and I went to see Aung San Suu Kyis first public speech at Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon. There were so many people. Sometimes we could not even hear her voice! When we came back we decided to open a strike camp in our township. At that time we believed in peoples power and mass movement. That day I was elected chairperson of the ABFSU at my high school. The vice chairperson did not accept the elections result and called for a repetition of the process. We had to repeat the elections three times, and the three times I won, so he finally accepted the outcome. (Aung Win Tin)

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I did not take any significant position during the protests. I thought the university students discriminated against people like me, they bullied us. One day the leaders of the protests in my town told us that since we were in the process of forming different committees in the strike camp they needed to know who was who. They asked all the university students and all the high school students to form two separate groups. But there were several of us who did not join any group. So they were very surprised. I still remember their faces. They asked us who are you? We already graduated from high school but have yet to go to university. I finally joined the information committee, but I felt bad with this division they created. (Kyaw Thura)

We formed a strike camp. There were students and workers, we lived

together. The camp was huge. I could not say how many people were there. I was responsible for collecting food, for making sure that all the students had something to eat. I also had to make sure that the food was not poisoned. There were different ways to see if the food was safe to eat. Sometimes we squeezed lemon over the rice. If there were bubbles it meant it could not be eaten. Or we asked where the food came from: had someone brought it anonymously? I was also responsible for fundraising. I was part of the security team at night too! People at the strike camp were very active. They wanted to demonstrate every day. But daily demonstrations were very hard to organise. So we tried to march once every two days. (Moe Kyaw Oo)

The university closed in March 1988 because of the demonstrations in Rangoon. It was briefly opened and then closed again in June. Some of my friends in Rangoon sent me the pamphlets they were distributing and we copied them by hand to share among the students by night. At that time there were no photocopy machines. The pamphlets talked about Phone Maw, about General Aung Sans letters to Ne Win, and also included some news, rumours etc. On the morning of 8. 8. 88 there were no big demonstrations in Henzada, just some small gatherings near some schools. By nighttime I received a phone call saying that one protest had started somewhere in my hometown. I took a trishaw and went there. Little by little the crowd grew bigger. We marched to the police station and demanded the police to release two students from Rangoon who had been arrested that morning but they refused. We kept marching and arrived

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at a Buddhist monastery. There were many students studying there. The abbot did not allow them to join but they decided to jump the fence and join us. We marched back to the police station and demanded the release of our fellow students again, but the police opened fire. They said it was just to scare us, but they shot directly at us. Luckily no one was hurt. We dispersed and took refugee at the monastery. That night I did not go back home. We demonstrated and marched for two days. On the third day I went back home. Whilst I was eating my mum came and asked me: Please, think. Are you going to carry on until the end, or are you just following what others are doing? If you dont think you will be committed until the end, please stop now and stay at home. Dont just follow what other people do. Make your own decisions. I thought about it and decided I would go on until the end. I think my mother knew that if I joined the demonstrations I would probably not finish my education; maybe she wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing. My father did not say anything. He just said I was an adult now, so I could make my own decisions. I was the only member of my family who joined the demonstration. We decided to found the students union in our town. I was in charge of the accounts. We overtook High School No. 1 and decided to use it as a strike camp for the students union. At that time we thought we would manage to topple the military government. We thought we would get a better government. At that time the military camp was four miles out of town and the city administration was in the hands of the students. There were two strike camps: the students one and the general camp. We would collaborate with each other, meet with each other but our identity as students was important. In early September, before the military coup, the Students Union Chairperson and I travelled to Rangoon and briefly met with Aung San Suu Kyi. It was a short meeting because there was a long queue of people waiting to talk with her. We explained about our town and the situation there. She gave us her direct phone number and asked us to call her if something happened. (Ko Aung Htun)

Until August 9 nothing happened in my hometown. The protests were organised by the high school students. I followed them. That day the police opened fire against the demonstrators and one of them was killed on the spot. There were no more demonstrations until August 24 once the Martial Law was lifted. Until the military coup took place, there were protests in the streets organised every day. (Min Zaw)

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There was contact between my fellow 75 Generation members and we decided to join the students under their leadership to show our support. Some days after August 8 I left Rangoon and went back to my hometown to set up the strike committee that would organise the protests there. Oil workers formed the main mobilization of people in my hometown. They have a history of anti-government protests since the colonial period. They were the main force behind the demonstrations in Min Bu. Workers, students and farmers formed the strike committee. I was in charge of information. People were really hopeful at that time. They believed that they would achieve democracy during the course of the demonstrations. But on the other hand people were aware of the possibility of a military coup. Thats why when some people were giving speeches to the public, others were undertaking military training in the strike camp. At that time the army was not involved in the demonstrations. Lots of incidents happened in different towns at that time. There was no order but chaos at that time. That made me realise that the possibility of achieving political change was smaller as time passed. On September 18 1988 the military coup took place and all hope vanished. We had time to prepare unlike in other places where the strike camps were cracked down upon immediately after the coup. As soon as we started hearing marching songs being played on the radio we knew the coup had taken place. We organised a retreat. We closed the camp and the offices; we kept our profile low, for example myself and some of my friends went to hide in nearby villages. (Ko Lwan Ni)

In 1988 I organised the students in my mums village. We were over one hundred. We marched and participated in the uprising. I understood about the situation, it was very difficult. My mother and father told me about it. One of my older sisters was also part of the students movement. At that time I was very excited about seeing the students coming together, but on the other hand I also worried because there were different groups and I feared that there could be some disagreements between the students. But it was fine. No disagreement happened. During the demonstration time the local government was quite friendly to the protesters; they were very supporting. But after the military coup they totally changed. They were no longer friendly. I do not know why they changed. (Mya Win)

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My community was a farmers community. We were obliged to sell our crops to the government authorities for a price lower than the market rate. The government could also take the land away at any time. We always had to please the government authorities so that they would not take the land from us. That is why I decided to join the protests. I was one of the demonstration leaders. We were in charge of organising the farmers and explaining to them that once we reached democracy, oppression from the government would end. I had worked on the fields so I knew the farmers. But also, the farmers themselves knew how the government had treated them, unfairly, so they joined not just in my village but also in other towns. When the coup took place I was at the strike camp. My mother told me: you should hide somewhere, you should avoid arrest because the army was arresting people. All of us who were involved in the demonstrations were trying to find a way to hide but there was nowhere for us. The military was everywhere. (Nay Myo Htike)

In my township the anti-government demonstrations started around August 22, 1988, later than in other parts of Burma. I got involved in organising the demonstrations because I didnt like the system. For instance, Loikaw was considered a brown area; there were not enough school teachers, medical services were very basic, there was a lot of harassment from the military, all sorts of things happened on a daily basis. I had heard about the protests that had started in August 8. That was the first time we heard about democracy; at that time we did not know exactly what it meant but we knew what we saw in our everyday reality. (Tim Maung Tum)

In 1988 I was not a student anymore, but I joined the demonstrations. I was very involved. During that time students came to my house for meetings. My sister participated in the demonstrations; she was very strong politically. Because we were part of a well respected family the high-ranking officers knew my father. Students felt safe at our house. I was 37 years old at that time; I was an adult compared to the students. I had to make sure they did not go for violence. For instance the chairman of Paan Township was my brother in law. At that time there were lots of attacks, lootings on government-related buildings. They asked me to help preventing them. Government officials gave me the keys to their buildings and cars. Both the students and the government trusted me. There were two protest groups in my town; students formed one, and township

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people formed the other. I was asked to lead the latter group. I could mediate between the demonstrators and the government and there was no looting, no violence. No buildings were set on fire in my hometown. (U Sue Htut)

All our family members were involved in the uprising in our township. My mother was the first speaker leading the crowds. My elder brother was one of the student leaders at the Rangoon Institute of Technology. He was arrested by the military intelligence. I was also very actively participating in the uprising in Mandalay. I was 22 years old. So in 1988 we were all involved in the democratic uprising. (Ko Than Khe)

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I joined the 1988 uprising with very little knowledge about democracy. Actually I first learnt the word democracy during the protests. We have learnt new concepts over these years: human rights, conflict transformation, conflict resolution. These words did not even exist in our dictionary. When I joined the ABSDF I was under 18. I was a child soldier according to the UN definition, but I was a voluntary child soldier. (Kyaw Thura)

I was the only member of my family that took part in the 1988 demonstrations. The whole country was protesting and participating in the uprising but in my village (formed by around 300 households) nobody dared to go outside. So three of us started the demonstration and then the whole village joined. Then the coup happened. Although we had been presenting our demands peacefully the government reacted with violence. So armed struggle was our only option. The night of the military coup the police opened fire in front of my house but I was hiding. I decided to leave that same night without telling my family. My family was questioned afterwards. (Saw Maung Oo)

In 1988 students had decided to follow three main strategies: one was to carry on with semi underground activities. For that purpose the ABSFU was formed. The second strategy was to form a legal political party, which was DPNS, and the third was to engage in the armed struggle through the ABSDF. Whilst I was working for the DPNS I was constantly watched by the military intelligence. Even if the three organisations looked different their essence was the same. In 1995 I said to everyone I was going to work in development projects in remote areas and left to join the ABSDF. I was 33 years old. (Ko Pouk)

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Newly born

You should watch me,

Crooked tyrant!!

My fury

Will not bow down

Under the military boots.

That is my faith in blood.

The haze will disappear

with the sunrise,

And you will see a new country

which I want to build.

Khine HtetVol. 2, No. 12, August, 1991.

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CHAPTER 3 Jail or Jungle

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I joined the 1988 uprising as an ordinary student. Imagine you have a household of ten people and all of them work and earn money, but even all this money is not enough to feed the family. That happened in every household in Burma. The 1988 unrest was a chance for the people to express their frustration. At that time we believed we would achieve democracy through the demonstrations. That was the most popular uprising in Burmas history; people of all walks of life participated, including soldiers, students, workers. We really believed the government would listen to the people. Then on September 18 1988, the coup happened and destroyed our hopes. But it did not stop the commitment to the struggle for democracy. It actually gave us the idea of what to do next, it showed us the available option: taking the arms. There were two reasons for this choice: one was seeing how violently the army had crushed the peaceful demonstrations. They had the guns and we had to fight against them using the same means. Reason number two was the existence of the already well-established ethnic resistance armed groups, who had been fighting against the Burmese military for self-determination for a long time. I knew quite a lot about the ethnic resistance groups already because the area where I lived was not far from the Burmese Communist Party controlled area, and the Karenni resistance groups. I knew how the ethnic nationalities had taken to armed struggle and fighting. (Khin Kyaw)

After the coup we thought there were only 2 options for us as students: if we continued to work politically inside Burma, one day we would have to go to jail; if we left home and joined the revolution resistance movement, we

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had to go to the jungle without knowing when we would be able to come back. There were only two options: jail or jungle. These are politics in Burma. Students had to choose between these two options if we wanted to continue with the political struggle. Some students continued working secretly inside the country with the students union. Others decided to join political parties. Our thinking was that in order to change the system we needed an armed

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resistance movement; we needed enough pressure. Thats why we had to go to look for armed assistance. That was our thinking at the time: which path we had to choose? (Ko Than Khe)

I was arrested by military intelligence on March 17, 1988, at Rangoon University, leading to my dismissal by the authorities. I was arrested but was not sent to prison. They released me but I started to be followed. My dads friend sent a message to my mum saying that I was going to be arrested again. I only had two choices: either move to another country as an illegal migrant worker, or go to the protected or liberated area. I could not survive in Burma. I had seen how my father, after joining politics, was banned from doing any business. He was blacklisted. I had this experience. So I asked my dad for advice: what should I do? I thought I should take arms against the government. I felt I was already dead. I could go to Rangoon but I would not be able to do any business; how was I going to survive? This is what I discussed with my dad. I did not want to become an illegal, so I chose to take up arms against the government. I dont like violence, I dont like war, but I did not have any choice. How would we get our demands? Who pushed me to join the armed struggle? The military government and the dictatorship, they pushed us to go. They would not recognise us if we did not hold guns. I decided to leave Rangoon and go to the jungle. I felt confident; I felt that was the right decision. (Salai Yaw Aung)

There were two main sources of inspiration for me at that time: even if I was older than many of those around me, the students inspired me and helped me endure all the hardship; their activism inspired me. Also the ethnic people were another source of motivation. The more inside we went, the more support we got. Before I knew the armed struggle, I had read about the ethnic armed resistance and how they were fighting for their rights. I knew that their struggle was right, that it was justified. I knew about their suffering at the hands of the Burmese army. But before I arrived in the ethnic area I felt nervous. For example, after I reached Mawlamyine I threw my civil servant card into the river so that nobody knew about it. In 1988, the ABSDF had the full support of the people inside Burma, as well as the NLD, which was born from the students uprising. This support was important for me. After the coup

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the government said that they would hold free elections, but when afterwards they refused to recognise the NLD victory, we at the ABSDF understood that the armed struggle really was the only option for us. In 1989 Ko Moe Thee Zun also joined the resistance group. More people focused on the armed struggle. (Ko Min Min)

I participated in the August 1988 nation-wide uprising. In my student union there was an agreement: OK, if shouting slogans and marching along the streets does not bring our demands, we will resort to other means, we will take up arms. Because of this decision we had already started communicating with the ethnic armed groups. We sent the first batch of students to be trained (in the armed struggle) into the Mon area, but they had not arrived at their destination when the military coup took place. The shooting in Tavoy started one day later (September 19). That was the day I left my hometown. I left not because I could not stay at home any longer, but because of the decision we had taken: to take other means to continue the struggle. (Myo Win)

After the military coup on September 18, one Burmese military officer called a meeting at a monastery with the students from my town. He said: OK, now the military has taken power, so no more protests will be allowed. Come back to your normal life and we wont make any arrests. But the students did not accept this, they said: we have to go to the jungle and take up the armed struggle. They started leaving the town. My mother told me: son, you are responsible for them, you should accompany them and convince them to come back. This is how I followed them. Afterwards many of them returned but I was the one who stayed! Seven hundred people left my town. My wife and daughters stayed back. At the beginning my wife did not support my decision, but later on she understood. (U Sue Htut)

The day the coup took place I decided to leave. I did not want to be arrested. I knew that if I was arrested I could not fight against them or resist them. So I thought I would rather join the armed resistance. (Moe Kyaw Oo)

After the military coup the government started arresting those who were involved in the demonstrations. In one of his speeches, General Ne Win said:

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we will not shoot at the air, we will shoot at you. We had been peacefully calling for democracy but we were unsuccessful. So, I thought we had to try other means. I decided to leave Burma and join the armed struggle. I was 24 years old. (Fighter Aung)

When the coup happened we discussed amongst the camp leaders, but also with the abbot, and we decided we had to go to the jungle. Many high school students wanted to join us but we disagreed; we told them no, you cannot come to the liberated areas with us, we will comeback soon with the guns, we will bring the guns for you. (Myint Oo)

After the coup all the civil servants were called in and asked about their opinions of the coup. We were given a list of questions about the new government that we had to answer. I thought that I did not want to go back to prison again, and I believed that the armed struggle was necessary. I knew the ABSDF had been formed, so I decided to join. I left on December 11, 1988. I did not tell my wife I was leaving. Later on she heard rumours that I had been killed in action. My house was registered by the authorities after I left. (Ko Min Min)

After the military coup, the core group of organisers left for the border and joined the resistance movement. As I was not well known I stayed at my village until 1991 when I joined the ABSDF. There was a lot of oppression and abuse by the army: we were forced to work for free in the government projects, even if we were very poor and needed to work for a living. Every household had to guard the government buildings. There were very hard punishments for those who did not comply. I could not bear it. So, I decided to join the resistance movement. I did not inform my family of my plans to leave. I did not even tell my friends. But later on I found out that the authorities questioned my friends when I left. And also my friends families were forced to relocate to another village because of me leaving. (Thant Zin)

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I did not tell my father directly that I was leaving, but he knew it anyway. He said to me: dont let your mother know about this. When I went to take the bus to leave Mudon my father came to the bus station by bicycle and checked if was there. He would cycle around looking for me. My mother came to visit me three years ago. I told her that at that time my father did not allow me to tell her that I was going to leave, but she did not believe me, she said it is not possible. Until he died he did not tell that to his wife. I spoke to my younger brother as he was the only other son. We agreed that I would leave and that he would stay with the family. My brother in law also wanted to come but I also told him he should stay. We had an agreement within the family. (Ko Kyaw Ko)

My elder brother and I decided we needed to leave. The two brothers together decided to leave family and home and go to the border to join the revolution. We discussed with our parents and they agreed. They thought it was the right decision and agreed with our demand. But one thing they said was: if you choose this way you have to endure all the hardship along the journey. Is not going to be easy. Is not going to be like walking through a rosy road. You cannot see the time when you can come back again. You should not betray the struggle. Along the journey you must stick to your principles, you have to choose the right way, even if you face many difficulties, please be honest. Only these things my parents asked of us. So we decided they had allowed us to join the revolution. One week after we left home my father was thrown into jail because he was serving as the vice chairman of the township local committee during the uprising. My mother was forced to transfer very far away, to a deserted area. My younger brother was dismissed from the university. Only the two younger ones remained at the house and could continue their studies at high school. The whole family suffered a lot. (Ko Than Khe)

My father tried to stop me from leaving. He told me: if you go, if you join the revolution, you will face lots of difficulties and hardships. My father was an underground member of the PPP (Peoples Patriotic Party). He knew how many hardships I would face and that if I left and ever contacted them again they would be punished. Thats why my mother, although she didnt know that I was leaving, said to me: if you go do not come back. My father was a taxi driver and my mother worked selling commodities. I have an older sister. Both

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my parents passed away already, but I only found out five years ago. I have not had contact with my sister until last year. (Khin Maung Win)

I went to say goodbye to my mother and she told me: you are a man now. Dont come back until you dont accomplish your objectives. Later on the army went to visit her and asked her to help them bring her son back, but she always refused. (Thein Lwin)

I do not know what changed but I realised I had to make a decision. I decided to leave. I did not have time to say goodbye, but I was able to meet with my family one year later when I returned home secretly. Of course, my mum was crying. I have never gone back. (Mya Win)

In 1993 I joined ABSDF Northern. I did not have the opportunity to say goodbye to my family. They knew I was hiding but they did not know that I had gone to the jungle. At that time my father was in the late stages of prostrate cancer, but I did not say anything to him. I was 23 years old. (Ma Hnoung)

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I left as part of a group of 200, formed mostly by students and young people from the village. The same happened all over Burma. Thousands of people were on their way to join the armed struggle. We felt very excited. Nobody knew how hard the journey would be. (Saw Maung Oo)

I remember that on the way to the border I was told how a group of twenty students had met with a unit from the NMSP (New Mon State Party). They were carrying a wounded soldier on a hammock. He had stepped on a land mine and they were returning him to the border area. The students helped the NMST to carry him. They had to cross a very high mountain, and it took them three days to reach the summit. It was very difficult and

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exhausting. The students had not even reached the border and they already got a glimpse of what was waiting for them. (Min Zaw)

Before we left the monastery to go to the jungle we did what General Aung San and the Thirty Comrades had done, we took a blood oath in front of the abbot. Then we left the monastery. We crossed a range of mountains and arrived at a Karen area. Then we crossed a river, and a big road; we passed many villages, mostly Karen. Then we saw one KNU (Karen National Union) soldier. He welcomed us very warmly and took us to a monastery where we could rest and eat. That was my first experience with their food. It was very different. They gave us sesame paste instead of fish paste. Their rice was very hot. We had no experience. But we tried because that was our decision; we had to carry on. I had lost my shoes on the way. My feet were very painful. The KNU soldiers told us we had to go to their headquarters, which were very far away. After one week we arrived. It was a hazardous journey because we had to avoid the Burmese army. We used to stay in monasteries during the night. Every Karen village has one monastery. We wrote our names at the monastery blackboards, so that the students who were following us knew that we had been there. We wrote our names under the names of those ahead of us. Seeing those names encouraged us. When we arrived, there were already many students from different places from all over Burma. When we saw it we were so happy, so satisfied. They were people like us. That gave us more energy. We made new friends. We would ask them were where they from, from which university and we shared information about the uprising. We heard from the radio that there were students arriving at other areas such as Kachin. We did not feel tired! We all thought the same: if we get the guns we will come back to our villages and towns and fight against the government authorities. We all thought that we would be back soon with guns. The KNU set up three camps for us. I stayed in one of them. They gave me shoes. (Myint Oo)

I left as part of a group of 21 people, the leaders of the strike camp. We were all men. It took us four days to reach the KNU camp. On our way to the border we passed by one village. When they heard us speaking Burmese the whole village went quiet. Even the animals stopped making noises. They hid all the food. They thought we were soldiers from the army. As I speak a little

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bit of Karen I communicated with them and they gave us food. You could see how scared they were. I imagined how brutally the Burmese government had treated the people in that area. (Moe Kyaw Oo)

Before the military coup took place, leaders from the Students Union had travelled the country organising the students. They also came to my hometown. So when the coup took place I, together with another person, was assigned to go to Rangoon, get arms and comeback. One of my contacts in Rangoon was originally from Mon State. He was a singer. His father was willing to take him to the border. So the two of us, together with his father, travelled to the Mon controlled area, which was very close to their hometown. We arrived to what is called the 3 borders region. A Unit formed by Mon female soldiers was already there. That was the first time I met the Mon armed resistance. (Min Zaw)

I dont remember my journey to the camp! I took us around ten days. It was very tough. The Burmese army was following us, so we had to move very fast. Keeping up with the rest of the group was very hard for me. I cant remember how many mountains we crossed! After we crossed one, my friends would try to cheer me up by saying: only one more to go but there was always another bigger one. After two or three mountains I stopped believing them. I really admired the female members of the ABSDF. They were medics and therefore did not carry guns but sacks of rice. When we stopped and whilst the men were resting the women would go and check how everyone was doing. (Ma Hnoung)

We travelled for a long time. It took us two weeks to reach the KNU area. It was a difficult journey. We were about to cross one river when the government militia got information and came looking for us; we ran to a nearby sugar plantation to hide. From there we saw a girl from a neighbouring village go to the river to collect water. The militia shot and killed her. Later one of my friends drowned when we tried to cross the river. It was an unlucky journey. When we left our hometown we were very strong, but we travelled for a long time and by the time we arrived to the KNU controlled area, we were very tired. (Chit Win)

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After the coup, students started arriving at the KNU outpost. I went to pick up some of them. We had prepared for their arrival. There was some basic makeshift accommodation. The meals were prepared at a nearby local market to avoid someone poisoning the food. Thousands of students arrived. I decided to stay. Almost all my friends with whom I had taken the blood oath were there; they were all Karen. I remember that one senior Karen officer came to see us and asked us what we wanted to do. She said we had different options; we could join different KNU departments, such as forestry, customs and, of course, the military department. We all said we wanted to fight. She asked us to think about it for one week. When she came back we all repeated that we wanted to take up the arms. From my group of friends (10 of us in total) only two of us stayed with the ABSDF. The rest joined the KNU. Before 1988 we had this idea of fighting for the rights of the Karen people. But then the students uprising happened and broadened the scope of the fight for me. I wanted to fight for all Burmans. And I also considered myself a student; I was planning to join the university. The sound of the peacock was in my blood! Of my friends who joined the KNU, some were killed in the battle and some of them were wounded. (Saw Silas)

Around fifty students from other places were already at the camp when we arrived. They were building some makeshift shelters. The KNU had created a reception group to welcome the students. There was a doctor, a registration area When I arrived I felt very nervous. The image of the rebels I had in my mind was very different from what I found in reality. For instance, we had left with some money but by the time we reached the camp we had run out of money. Some of us did not have shoes. The Karen people who were selling

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in the market gave us whatever we needed. They were very warm and kind to the students. After I arrived at the camp I really missed my family. I often dreamed about them. But the first concern was malaria. Everyone got sick. Two students died of malaria on the same day. I thought maybe I would die too. The weather was very hot and that made the malaria worst. Some of the girls that had come with us were crying. Everything was very chaotic. Maybe there was not enough medication. Our camp had the highest malaria death toll amongst all the camps along the border. When someone died we tried to

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perform a funeral the best way we could. The problem was that there was no Buddhist monk in the area. Only some Christians, as it was a Christian area. We could not do it according to the Buddhist rites. There were two novice monks in my group but they were disrobed during our trip to the border because it was too much for them! By the time we arrived to the camp they were no longer monks! (Moe Kyaw Oo)

When we left we didnt have any contacts. We just followed the black market road with the hope that somehow we would find the rebels in the jungle; we had no idea where we were going. Three days after we found some KNU soldiers and they told us that some student groups had already arrived at one of their outposts. This convinced us that we had made the right decision. We walked for 13 days until we reached the KNU area. The KNU received us very well; with a lot of respect. It was much better than what we had imagined. Later on I spoke with the KNU people and they told me that when the uprising occurred in Burma, they expected the students would come, thats why they had prepared: they had stocked clothes, food etc. (Khin Kyaw)

We arrived at a Mon district camp on October 4. The camp commander asked us if we wanted to join the NMSP or the students. Of course the students! So he took us to the place where other students who had already arrived were staying. We thought there would be many of them but what we saw were only several in four almost empty barracks, one of them about to collapse. Nothing was happening. I thought, since we were in a military camp, we would be sleeping on bunk-beds equipped like soldiers in the war movies we had seen, but it wasnt even close to what I had imagined. The bed we were provided was just the floor of the barrack. (Kyaw Thura)

After we stepped off the train we met a NMST column. They took us to the border. It took two weeks to reach it. We travelled sometimes by boat, sometimes by foot. I remember there was a very high mountain. We started climbing it at the very early morning and only reached the top by the evening. There was no water and we were all so tired that we could not even talk. One female student died of exhaustion at the top of the mountain. We had never experienced something like that before. Even the NMST members were

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discouraging us. They said: you do not even have arms. How are you going to fight back? or they would lie to us: Aung San Suu Kyis brother is already at the border, he is waiting for you with a big pile of guns. We were so angry. So many people had been killed when the army crashed the strike camps after the coup. That anger was still inside us and that was what kept us going, it made us continue walking. We were the first group to reach the Three Borders Pass. We thought that it would only take us 15 days we would arrive, get the guns, return back, and fight. I was nineteen years old at that time but I was not among the youngest in the group. Some of the people were much younger than me. We realised there were no guns waiting. There was nothing but malaria. Many people left. Some parents came to take their sons and daughters back. My uncles also came to see me, but I did not return. My friends had been killed in the streets. I wanted to fight back, even if it was not easy. That was the political understanding I had taken from my brothers in law. When you are a student you can relax, you dont need to worry, you dont need to think. But once you reach the border you have to be mature. In Burma I was just a student, but when we reached the border I became one of the camp deputy officers, I had responsibilities. But it was a very tough time for the students. Ten people died due to malaria, food was scarce. We had only banana, papaya and pumpkins to eat. People sold whatever possessions they had to buy food. (Thein Lwin)

In 1988 the uprising found me in Bangkok. I had signed off from my previous job and was looking for another one. After one month in Bangkok I flew to Singapore and I saw that Singapore was even more developed than Thailand. From Singapore I travelled to Malaysia by train. From the train I saw how the peasants working the fields lived. They had TVs in their homes. A motorcycle parked at the gate, sometimes even a car. And I wondered, why is this happening? How can it be that peasants in Burma, which is richer in terms of resources, live so poorly? Why is Burma so different? Maybe there is something wrong. Maybe there is a problem with the government. When I read that many students and other people had gone to the border areas I thought I could also do something for my country. I did not know if the students had any military experience. Since I had done military training, I thought I should go with them and help them; I thought this was how I could

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contribute to my country. That was my duty. So I decided to go to the border and join the ABSDF. I travelled from Bangkok to Mae Sot. I had a friend there who was a KNU member and when I told him I wanted to join the students he arranged for me to go to one of their camps. At that time the ABSDF had not been formed yet. There were around 500 students and other people at the camp when I arrived. When I met them they were full of hope. They thought that everything was going to be very easy and very quick: get the guns, the military training, come back inside Burma, fight and win. But I knew it was not going to be easy to get guns, and without training it is very difficult to know how to use them. On November 1988, the ABSDF was formed and we set up one regiment there. I went to talk to the KNU about the possibility of providing military training to the students and they agreed. (Wai Linn Zin)

We finally arrived to the Thay-Baw-Boe camp. I was so happy! I saw lots of people like me! Of course my life changed completely: food, living conditions But I was content with this new life. It was an opportunity to do something. (Min Khant)

I travelled with my first wife and my son to the ABSDF headquarters in Weigyi. The ABSDF that I had in my imagination, and the ABSDF that I found when we arrived to Weigyi were the same. The students were very warm, and kind with each other. They were like a family. Even if they were very young I felt they were very mature. I felt I had made the right decision. (Ko Pouk)

I left with a group of 17 or 18 students. We arrived at the KNU Brigade No. 7 area. When we arrived I felt I had become part of the struggle; I felt I had joined history. (Fighter Aung)

Our plan was to just arrive to the camp, get the guns and comeback. We thought we would be done in three days! But getting to the border alone took us eleven days. Yes, when we arrived there we saw guns but were the KNU soldiers that carried them My life totally changed. I was very young at that time. I was not even a man yet. I grow up in the jungle. I had to endure a lot. (Nay Myo Htike)

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Pass through in the ABSDF

We havent symbolised a battlefield

As our future.

But the future

Rather creates, selects and offers

A battlefield to us.

Maung Lwan Ni

7. 7. 2002Vol. 2. No. 2. Oct-Nov 2002.

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CHAPTER 4

The ABSDF has been a lifetime experience

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W hen we were on the way to the border area we were worried other students would have already arrived and grabbed the guns. We thought we were late. We have to go fast, hurry up, hurry up! When we reached the Thaw Baw Poe camp, in the KNU area, we realized there was nothing. Even the camp was hardly set. We thought that we would arrive, get military training, get arms, comeback and topple the government. We would be done in six months, or one year maximum. But even after the military training there were no sign of guns. We were frustrated. We only thought about fighting. So we went to see the KNU officer and he patiently explained us that the struggle would take time. Some people started returning back home, even one of my cousins came to visit me and asked me to come back. I did not want to return empty handed. I thought: Ok, maybe it will take us longer, maybe three years. (Ko Kyaw Ko)

Our new life was very difficult. We had health problems, there was very little food, and the available food was new and strange. I understood my new life better each month, better each day. I looked at how the local people ate and I did the same, how they slept and I did the same. Some of my friends returned back. From the group of seven that left together I was the only one who stayed over the years. (Mya Win)

When I arrived at the Indian border, my life changed completely. I do not know how to express it. Before I left I had read many books about the struggle for independence in Burma, about the difficulties of the underground life and the armed struggle. I knew I was going to face difficulties but could not imagine life was going to be so hard. Reading about it and living it was completely different. Even if we were young, before reaching the age of 30 we all had white hair, high blood pressure, a lot of stress. When we arrived we were very active, we wanted to continue our struggle, but our situation and our expectations were totally different. At the beginning the Indian government did not want to recognise us, but they finally did and accepted Burmese students and activists in their refugee camps. But they did not allow us to leave the camps, because the political situation in that area was very complicated.

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There were many insurgent groups in Manipur State and they were worried about our safety. But keeping us in the camps made the communication among ourselves even more difficult. It was very hard. We were locked in the camps. We felt very sad. We had left Burma to continue our struggle with the help of the Indian government. We had information from Rangoon and Mandalay; the Indian embassies there had contacted the students leaders in Rangoon and suggested they go to India. Mr Rajiv Ghandi welcomed us, accepted us in India. We thought that we would arrive and the helicopters would be waiting for us and they would take us to the military training it was from these kinds of messages that we decided to leave for India, but when we arrived we found another situation. There was a lot of misinformation. Sometimes we felt that we had been put in isolation camps. We were not happy. (Ko Thura)

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I was very hopeful at that time. I thought we would be able to implement our plans. But we faced many difficulties. We were not well equipped to fight. The early days were very difficult. We ate twice a day, and even these two meals were not good enough. We often did not have enough food. When I arrived, there were many problems at the camp because it was formed by people from different townships. We were all very different. So, instead of focusing on the real objectives of our struggle I had to concentrate on solving the internal problems in the camp. For example; there were four hundred people in the camp. We were only given rice and a bag of fish paste and chillies for every meal. So, to feed the four hundred of us we had to mix the fish paste and the chillies with water to make soup so that people could at least taste the fish paste. Cooking was done in rotation, so my platoon had to take care of cooking from time to time. When it came to the food distribution people would try to favour those from their area. That was one of the problems I had to solve every single day, every single meal. No wonder we were not able to win the struggle in three months as we thought we would! A happy memory from that time is the way we, students were welcomed by the locals when we arrived in the jungle at the Thai/Burma border. They had very little but treated us with great care. (Myo Win)

We have many feelings inside. Some of them we need to keep, we cannot tell them to anyone because they have already past. I never thought the struggle would last 24 years. When we arrived at the camps no one had any experience in setting an army. Everyone was a leader, there were so many leaders! I thought OK, calm down. One day you would be the camp leader, the next day another person would be. After that I thought: OK, I do not think we can achieve our objectives in three months maybe six months, and after, maybe one year, two years, three years not 24 years! I am really grateful to the KNU; they were the ones introducing us to the army life. They gave us military training. They explained to us what is important in an army: discipline, obedience, order and responsibility. (Salai Yaw Aung)

The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) helped us open the students camp in the Huay Pon Long area, which used to be a KNPP headquarters. During the first one or two months I realised that even if we

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were all fighting against the military regime, there were many internal issues around: for instance, the military trainer was a Karenni from the KNPP whilst most of us (the students) came from Kayah and Shan States. He was fine with the students from Kayah but not with those coming from other regions. Many people were not politically mature and would favour people from the same region. These tensions among the people were very sad to see. People had left their families and loved ones to join the cause, and I felt that we were all one family now so everyone should be treated as member of the same family. I tried to mediate in the disputes and to inform the camp leadership of what was going on, but there were strong protocols in place at that time, so if you were not a member of the Camp Committee you were not allowed to go to the camp office, it was a very hierarchical structure. I tried to talk to one or two camp leaders, but being a girl and being young they did not take me seriously. One morning, around four hundred students decided to leave the camp, not just because of these internal problems, but also because the military training, the illnesses and malaria were taking a toll on them. (Ma Sue Pwint)

Life in the camps was not easy. The biggest challenge was malaria. I was almost dying. Food was also scarce and of poor quality. Only determination and commitment kept us alive. (Fighter Aung)

After I arrived to the camp I really missed my family. I often dreamt about them. But the first concern was malaria. Everyone got sick. Two students died of malaria on the same day. I thought maybe I would die too. The weather was very hot and that made the malaria worst. Some of the girls that had come with us were crying. Everything was very chaotic. Every one got sick and we were just helping each other. Maybe there was not enough medication. Our camp had the highest death toll of malaria among all the camps along the border. (Moe Kyaw Oo)

We arrived at the KNPP headquarters camp in September 1988. We were the first students. We had to wait quite a long time before we got military training. We said to the KNPP give us guns, we want to fight, but they always responded, no, it does not work like that. Revolution takes time, you have to organise. The more students that came, the harder life in the camp

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became in terms of food and shelter. It was a time for testing how strong we were. That was the hardest time. Between September, when we arrived at the KNPP headquarters, and November, when the military training started, more than half of the students decided to leave. Mostly because of the hard living conditions, the lack of food and water and malaria At that time the government set up reception centres for the students that wanted to come back home; the government announced on the radio that it was OK to return home and that students would be welcomed back and that they had nothing to be afraid of. Those who returned were questioned by the army and had to sign a confession saying that they would not be engaged in political activities in the future. After signing you were on their list. I never considered going back. (Tim Maung Tum)

Soon after we reached the Thae Baw Poe Camp in KNU area, the Burmese and the Thai governments started a joint operation to bring the students home. They threw letters from airplanes and gave money (5000 baht) to the students who were willing to return. Around 5000 students, nearly half of the camp, decided to go back. Some contacted the Burmese embassy in Bangkok and they arranged for their return, some just went back using the same route, some sneaked in. Even the student who came up with the name ABSDF left! Some of the students who left immediately after the coup were trying to return to Burma. But I had spent three months under the provisions; when they were trying to go back I was actually going in the opposite direction, I was trying to leave Burma. I never thought about returning home. (Aung Win Tin)

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Before the ABSDF was formed the students were scattered around the Thai, Indian and Chinese border areas. They had their own leaders. They named themselves differently. We realised we had to organise. We approached the KNU to help us to organise a meeting including delegations from the different camps. Once we had permission from the KNU moving along the border was not difficult. They allowed us to meet in the Wanka area. Around 30 delegates participated in the meeting. This is when the decision to form the ABSDF was made and the first Central Committee was elected. This was November 1st 1988. After this meeting there was another also along the Thai/Burma border where the military structure and organisation of the ABSDF was decided. (U Sue Htut)

Finally news arrived that there would be a students conference at one of the KNU controlled areas. We sent a delegation, which included Htun Aung Kyaw, who many of my colleagues and I didnt imagine, became the first ABSDF chairman. We were positive and hopeful after its formation because at least we had a students group. But still, the ABSDF was not a functioning organisation. Creating a common structure for all of us scattered along different locations took time, even if we had a common name. For a couple of months the ABSDF was not a living body. At the beginning we did not have a long-term plan, a long-term mind-set. We thought everything would be very quick. We would just g